July
The month was kicked off by an epic visit from Emily, Eva,
and Graeme. As a wonderful best friend, Emily had heeded my plea for help to
get out of my home organization and decoration rut and came to save the day
more than I could have imagined. When she and the kids got here, we went down
to Beale Street and ate at Dyer’s. A motorcycle rally had convened on the main
drag to the interest and delight of the kids. The next day, my dearest friend
was fearlessly cleaning, organizing, decorating, and decides to renovate our
bathroom. We took a break long enough to go down to Mud Island and watch the
Independence Day fireworks with the kids. That was a lot of fun, except for a
monorail debacle at the end of the night where Emily and I misplaced each
other. The next day, we were back to working on the house and making more
unimaginable progress.
Emily saw Andrew’s chef coats hanging
to dry on the shower rod and was inspired to do our bathroom in black and
white, playing up tile in that color we already had. Our hideous blue sink
received numerous layers of white epoxy, and its off-white cabinet with dated
gold details got a coat of shiny black gloss. She tiled around the sink
cabinet, painted the medicine cabinet and light fixtures, and hand-sewed a new
curtain for the window from a fabric scrap. By hand, she added a black ribbon
to a new white shower curtain, the handmade curtain, and a new hand towel. The
effect was totally reminiscent of Andrew’s chef coats, which was the source of
Emily’s inspiration. By the time she was done in there, we had a new curved
shower curtain installed, a new over-the-toilet cabinet assembled and in place,
a drywall repair, and a new epoxy finish on our bathtub. The transformation
can’t be overstated. And that was just the bathroom.
This all took several
days, which we interspersed with fun stuff for all. One night, we went to
Otherlands for Gerald Stephens CD release party, which was a really great time.
Eva and Graeme really enjoyed the music, as did the adults. We got to see Serena, in from Pensacola, and JoDe, who was hosting her, along with many other friends It was great to see such
a good friend as Gerald reach an important milestone in his career. Another day, I took
the kids to the Woodland Discovery Park at Shelby Farms. This park has got to
be the coolest place to hang out with kids outside of Disneyworld. Swings,
slides, ropes, and a sandbox comprise the park; all pretty standard, but all
with a twist. For example, some slides are super steep and they have sacks for
the kids to ride down on, making it really fast! We had a blast and were the
last ones out of the park at closing! One day, we got froyo at YoLo; another
day, we got Jerry’s Snocones. We also had Gus's crack chicken and Memphis' best, Central BBQ, along with several delicious meals prepared by Andrew. Another day, we went to Andrew’s class’ end of
term buffet, and the kids really enjoyed seeing the chefs and chefs-in-training. We went back to Mud Island
another day and had a great time exploring the Mississippi River Museum and
checking out a bit of the Riverwalk. All of this fun was included around more
trips to Lowes, Home Depot, Target, and Walmart than I typically make in a
year. When Emily and the kids left after 10 days, we were all exhausted and very
pleased with the progress we made all over the house, especially in the
bathroom.
Over next couple weeks, I caught some music here and there.
I finally got to see the monster-of-sound that is Memphis’ Mighty Souls Brass
Band, led by our good pal, Sean Murphy. I can’t describe how awesome they are
except to say that they gave Rebirth Brass Band a run for their money. Mighty
Souls opened for Rebirth and just about stole the show, fonky as Rebirth be! I
caught two of the trifecta of Minivan Blues Band shows, one solo at Newby’s and
the other with Andrew at Minglewood.
A couple days before Emily left, Madison was due to arrive
in Memphis on the Greyhound. She missed the bus the first day, and then she
made it into town safely the next day. She was around to celebrate my birthday
(Hog and Hominy!), Vicki’s birthday (dinner at Kate’s!), José’s birthday
(overrun by Clayton’s party), and Clayton’s birthday (pool party at Ricky and
Margo’s!). She spent the night with Heather a few time and went to church as
well.
The trip was nearly truncated into less than two weeks,
when, long story short, Madison decided to stay in Memphis.
August, so far
Immediately in the middle of this massive change to our home
life with Maddi moving back home, Andrew and I were in the process of buying new cars. I found one I loved
out in Virginia Beach, and Dad helped me get a great price. All I had to do was
go get it! So, time for another road trip! This time, Maddi and I set out in a rental
car toward the East Coast. We got a late start on the day of our departure
because I got caught up in the excitement of Andrew buying his brand new car, a
Hyundai Accent. The late start on the road was totally worth it to see his
happy face, but it meant that the 10 hour drive to Greensboro, NC took until
4:30am. I had made plans to stop and spend the night at Aunt Debbie and Uncle
Sean’s house outside of Greensboro, but we got in so late that I only managed
to get a nap in after sitting up with Aunt Debbie and drinking coffee with her
while she got ready for work. After my nap, we headed east and then north along
the Outer Banks. We stopped by Kitty Hawk which closes incredibly early, so we
didn’t get to really check it out as much as we would have liked. We got to
Dad’s by dinner time, which was perfect. We ate grilled chicken out on the
deck, drank mojitos, and the kids went swimming after dinner (myself included).
The next day, we went to buy my car. I found a 2008 Kia
Rondo with superlow miles on it and fell in love with it from the pictures on
the dealership website. So, when I finally saw her in person and got to drive
her and then got the keys to her, I was ecstatic! I can’t imagine a better car
for me and my lifestyle and activities; I am surprised they don’t make that
model any longer. At any rate, Ramblin’ Rose was a great reason to go see my
family and is a great ride.
Maddi and I made the most of our four days in Virginia
Beach. It was great visiting with everyone! I hadn’t seen my family since Dec.
2011, so we were overdue. In one action-packed day, Maddi and I went to Sandbridge beach, then kayaking
at False Cape with Dad and the boys, and that night, I caught a Dark Star
Orchestra show at the Norva. Other fun family activities included boating in
Broad Bay, seeing the boys play baseball, and playing in the pool. All in all,
it was a really wonderful visit.
From Virginia Beach, Maddi and I went up to D.C. to do some
sight-seeing. Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery and the Changing
of the Guard. No words can describe this ceremony, but, suffice it to say, Maddi
was extremely moved and impressed. We caught a cab over to the Lincoln Memorial
where we spent a lot of time. It was a little disappointing that this time that
I finally “go” to the Memorial, rather than just drive by it, that it was in
the middle of cleanup from the crazy lady throwing paint on him. They had
scaffolding around on side of the monument, so it wasn’t just a pristine moment
with two Hodgenville girls and their favorite hometown hero. Still, it was
really cool. Maddi and I had a lot of fun helping people take photos of
tourists from everywhere in the world. We walked around the Mall area a bit and
saw the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. Then it was time to head to Jamie and
Selma’s house. We caught some terrifying rush hour traffic but made it to La
Plata in one piece. We sat up and talked past everyone’s bedtime, which was
great because I hadn’t seen these guys since 2011 either.
The next morning,
Maddi and I rode the commuter bus into D.C. under Selma’s thoughtful
instruction. This was great because we got to take a nap before being dropped
off right by the Smithsonians. The museums weren’t open yet when we got there,
so we walked around by the Capitol Building and dodged some rain at the Botanic
Gardens café’s umbrellas. Then we hit the Air and Space Museum. Maddi loved it!
I was pleased that she was so impressed with the artifacts on display. We
marveled over the Apollo capsules, Sputnik, and the Lunar Rover. We touched a
moonrock, saw the Wright Flyer and the Spirit of St. Louis, and saw every
possible representation of aviation under the sun. We headed to the National
Gallery of Art next. I didn’t include this on our original itinerary, but Maddi
picked it, so off we went. We saw Titan, El Greco, Raphael, Rembrandt, Bosch, Munch,
and Rubens. That was in less than ¼ of one building. Feeling somewhat
overstimulated, we ditched the rest of the museum and strolled around the
adjacent sculpture garden. Our last stop was the Natural History Museum.
Typically, this is my favorite Smithsonian museum but, during our visit, the
number of other visitors really overwhelmed the place. We saw about ¾ of this
museum before heading out again. We had time to grab a coffee from Starbucks
and feel very metropolitan before time to catch the commuter bus back to Waldorf.
An hour later and we were settling in for a 5 hour drive back down to Aunt
Debbie’s house.
We arrived at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Sean’s house at around
11pm, so we did much better on the return leg of the trip. We slept like rocks
and got up in the morning to drink coffee and visit with Uncle Sean a bit before hitting the
road back to Memphis. Uncle Sean and I rapped about Leonard Cohen and all kinds
of musical topics before we headed out. Eleven hours on the road, and we were
back in Memphis.
For two nights over this past weekend, I went out to see the Perseid meteor shower. While the conditions in Memphis were less than ideal with cloudy skies, I did see about 50 or so beautiful meteors on the two nights. I love star-gazing more than I can possibly explain.
Now, today, I am getting Maddi registered for school and
setting up the lab for knocking out a summer’s worth of experiments. Keep your
head inside the ride at all times, ladies and gentlemen, because today is only
August 11th.
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